CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed a watchdogs ruling that Government officials were too slow to tell many women they would be affected by the rising state pension age.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman finding brings the prospect of compensation closer for thousands of women born in the 1950s who have long been furious about the issue.

It marks a significant victory for the Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign.

Durham's Waspi co-ordinator Sylvia O’Brien said: we are delighted with the outcome if the first round, but we are hoping for a fair and fast outcome to the next two stages.

“The next stage is for them to establish whether they have caused us an injustice and the following will be the remedy of any injustice.

“At least 3.8 million women have been affected by this. it would mean alot to us to get any kind of compensation, because the likes of myself have lost £45,000, by not getting a pension at 60.

“These women have worked all their lives to be told - I was told a year before - that they couldn’t get their pension at 60. I was told it would be 64 and a half and then it went again to 66, which is what it is now.

“Its heartbreaking hearing the stories of some women - people crippled with arthritis, or looking after their family.

Also these women were on low paid wages and even if there was a pension scheme – which there wasn’t – they couldn’t afford it. They were the home makers. .

Angela Madden, who chairs the Waspi campaign, said: "The findings reinforce what we, unfortunately, knew all along; that the DWP failed to adequately inform 3.8 million 1950s-born women that their state pension age would be increasing.

"These women have been waiting for many years for compensation. We cannot wait any longer.

"We are calling on the government to agree fair and adequate compensation rather than allow what has become a vicious cycle of government inaction to continue."

A DWP spokesperson said: “Both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP, under successive governments dating back to 1995, and the Supreme Court refused the claimants permission to appeal.

“In a move towards gender equality, it was decided more than 25 years ago to make the State Pension age the same for men and women.”

For any further information, email durhamwaspigroup@gmail.com.

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